Excerpt from The Shuttlecock Papers: A Book for an Idle Hour Nursed by dainty damsels and its words whispered by them to the lazy ripple of the summer sea or be come their canoe-companion beneath the leafy shade of some of the loveliest spots of the Upper Thames, or have its pages carelessly fluttered by dimpled fingers under the limes to the solemn cawing of the grave old rooks, at certain pleasant country houses that I wot of if, during the ensuing autumn, it should be dreamed over beneath the awning of a Rhine steamer if it should lull any one to sleep amid the vines and myrtles by the Lago Maggiore if it should be taken for a morning's lounge in a gondola through the water-streets of Venice if it is strapped up with the rugs going over the Simplon, or serves to shorten a wet morning at Chamouni if it tends to lighten anybody's luggage, or brighten the weary part of any journey, long or short, I shall feel it will accomplish all the purpose that may be con tained within its pages. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.